Fiction Friday - Tribes

Today I am introducing the triumphant return of Fiction Friday. I haven't written a completely fictitious story in quite some time, but now I finally feel the time has come. I will make no commitment to write a fiction story every week this time, but I will write a new one whenever it comes to me. I'll now introduce you to the tribes. Let me know what you think.

 Tribes

The tribes have lived in relative peace since we arrived here thousands of years ago. Our origins have been lost to the ages. Only a few of our ancient writings have survived to give us any clue at all. From those writings we know that we came from elsewhere through the Acweorna to discover new places, but something went terribly wrong and we were stranded in this place.

The ancient records say we tried for many years to get back home, but after several generations most of us finally gave up. As time passed our population grew, and we slowly began branching off to form different tribes. We also slowly lost most of our technology over time as we tried to survive in this primitive place. Too many hardships and disasters left us with virtually none of our former advantages. The only thing we had left was our superior intelligence.

The one technology we were able to maintain was a remnant of the Acweorna. We have never been able to rebuild it to be able to travel again, but we have been able to use some of its technology to build many other things. It has been the basis of all of our technology then and now, and we use it for almost everything from food to shelter. We continue to experiment with it, and make new advancements in science. We hope that one day we'll be able to unlock some of the old secrets.

In the early times we were alone in this place, but after many centuries animals from this place began to appear, and with them there came the giants. The giants are creatures that resembled a few of the hairier others that seemed able to use their hands almost as efficiently as we do. We soon discovered that the giants were very different.

The giants seemed to quickly gain an advantage over the other animals. They appeared to be smarter than the others and we thought at one time that their intelligence even rivaled our own. We quickly lost that notion when some of us tried to communicate with them. The giants attacked and killed many of us, just like many of the other animals always tried to do. We learned then that they would always be an enemy to be feared.

Knowing that it's impossible to hide from them, we pretend to be just like any other animal when the giants come near. We have superior intelligence and technology, but the giants have vastly superior numbers. As it stands right now, we would be wiped out if we really decided to claim our rightful place here. But we are coming ever closer to the day when we will be ready to take over and rule this place.

Recently though, we have noticed that some of the giants have been watching us a little too closely. We cannot take the chance of them discovering our secret. We still maintain our animalistic behavior when these giants approach, but we also watch them very closely. They seem to have devices that scan us in some way. We don't like this so we yell at them to go away. Most of them take the hint, but some keep at it. Those are the ones we watch.

This brings me to an incident that happened not very long ago. There was a leader of one of the nearby tribes that had a problem with a particularly bothersome giant. The tribe leader was known for being rather impulsive with a bad temper to top it off. After several unpleasant encounters with this giant, The tribe leader took action and locked the giant up intending to do away with it.

Well, he underestimated the numbers of the giants that would be called to its defense. The others soon freed this giant, and it proceeded to send a beast to wipe out several members of that tribe. The tribe leader went insane with rage and went on a rampage of revenge throughout the world. Because of his insanity, it was completely ineffective. That leader's actions almost cost us everything, and as a result he is now considered a renegade. His whereabouts are at this time unknown.

His initial actions must have stirred the curiosity of that particular giant though, because it now continues its investigation of us with an almost feverish passion. We tried ignoring it at first with the hopes that it would give up and go away, but it still gets closer all the time. We have now decided that we have to protect our secret at any cost, so we have begun watching the giant very closely.

The only problem is that the giant has noticed our observations of it, and it seems to make it even more curious. We now have no choice but to take further action against it. We have several plans in place, and extermination is one of our many options. Our actions will be determined by the behavior of this giant. We fear the worst, but we must keep our secrets.

- The log of Scitana Sciuridae 01.34.47